Yet lurk'd there tender gems beneath, Ere long to bloom in glorious wreath. His little ones came chanting round Hosanna to their King. 7. THE OAK. "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind ?" COME take a woodland walk with me, And mark the rugged old Oak Tree, Where from the bank the fresh rill springs, And points the waters' silent way Down the wild maze of reed and spray. There stands he, in each time and tide, He holds his root in faith and power, Mark'st thou in him no token true Of heaven's own Priests, both old and new? Fix'd in the wild, from year to year 8. THE PALM. "Palma virens semper manet conservatione et diuturnitate, non immutatione foliorum."-St. Ambrose, Hexaemeron, iii. 71. WHY of all the woodland treasure, Holy Palm, art thou preferred, When the voice of praise is heard, Is it for thy verdure, brightest In the zone of colours bright? Nor of sun nor air afraid? |